Makiej is introducing students to hula hoop training as the latest exercise regimen targeted to tone muscles, gain balance and lose weight.

Yoga, she said, plays a large part in her hula hoop exercise.

“Yoga helps my students stretch themselves through a variety of positions. This stretching opens up the students. With this technique, one woman, who was 70, was able to get up from the stretching and be able to do the hula hoop. She couldn’t do it before the stretching,” she said.

“I open up students in a nurturing kind of way, which is the opposite of what a lot of workouts are usually about.”

Markiej, 46, is based in Lowell and has been training students in Westford and surrounding towns for the last two years. She uses a three-way approach to fitness: yoga, hula hoop movements and natural foods nutrition.

“The combination of those three for me has been phenomenal,” she said. “When I teach these three things I feel as if I am teaching a Western take on Eastern philosophy. This lends itself to one-on-one sessions but I also do groups.”

She also introduces the hula hoop regimen to women who are having gatherings and parties. She has taught classes at hospitals, bariatric weight loss groups, even birthday parties.

She says hula hoop exercise can also improve one’s self-esteem.

“My background has been as a private learning coach. I ... was an academic tutor and a self-esteem coach. I did that for a long time, more than 15 years. I discovered hula hooping after recovering from a serous illness. I thought, ‘This is a really cool thing that I could teach people,’ ” she said.

She said hula hoop exercise helps people with their posture and balance and that helps them present a better public image and helps them with their self-esteem.

The hoops she uses are larger than the ones kids used in the 1950s when the hula hoop was the craze.

“I carry 18 different sizes and weights of hula hoops. Not only do adults need larger hoops than kids, but they also need different weights of the hoops. Too light a hoop can lead to neck and shoulder stress. A hoop that is too heavy can make the exercise exhausting,” she said. She sells custom-made hoops that cost from $20 to $45.

Markiej says workouts usually take from 30 to 50 minutes, and in some cases, burn as many as 600 to 800 calories an hour.

“So not only is it good cardio, but it helps with firming the waist and body toning,” she said.

She did not learn how to hoop until she was 30.

“Even though I started late, I was always a dancer and I found I could introduce dance moves into a hula hoop session that helps with the variety and makes hooping more fun,” she said.